


Cookies

by Anonymous



Series: Baby We're On Fire [3]
Category: That '70s Show
Genre: F/M, One-Shot, Slice of Life, just a bit of cuteness, sorry - Freeform, still not the sequel, with more one-shots to come
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 16:56:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20213152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The recipe was simple, but Jackie's baking skills were non-existent. Who will win in this quest for Steven Hyde to have his favorite cookies for his birthday?





	Cookies

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome, welcome, to another installment of Not-The-Sequel!
> 
> The sequel — _Broken Stars_ — is going to take a while, but the good news is, because of how much time needs to be covered flashback-wise, I’ll be throwing out some one-shots of 1978-1987 time that I know won’t be in the sequel, so there’s something to trap y’all here while I get my shit together.
> 
> To anyone who doesn't know the series but wants to read this anyway, here's the basic information you need to know; Hyde and Jackie joined forces after Hyde tells Jackie that Kelso's a cheater in Season 2, and ran away from Point Place for reasons some time before Season 3. They are now living on their own in Indianapolis.
> 
> **Timeline:** they ran away sometime in February, and this story is on Hyde’s birthday, November 28. They are already in a romantic relationship at this point.

This was easy. This was totally easy. This was _supposed _to be easy. One cup sugar, one cup peanut butter, one egg, half a cup of chocolate chips. Easy.

And yet.

_I did _not _skip school for this._

Jackie glared angrily at the mixing bowl. She should have known this would happen when she found out Steven’s birthday was on a Tuesday. Tuesdays are, objectively, the worst day of the week, and now she had compelling evidence that they were cursed. She’d already showered and laid out her outfit and lined up her make up and cleaned up the apartment and re-dressed the bed; all she had left to do was bake Steven his birthday treat and change clothes.

The treat was not cooperating.

** _Mix_ ** _, goddamn it!_

She once again tried to stir what was supposed to be her cookie dough, but the second the whisk moved, sugar went shooting over the edge.

She let out a wordless scream of frustration and her neighbor shouted from the next apartment over, _“Shut the hell up over there!”_

_“Fuck off, Susan!” _Jackie banged on the wall for good measure and went back to her baking.

_One day, we’re gonna move to someplace with thicker walls and Susan’s going to be stuck here, having unsatisfying sex with her husband, _she thought spitefully, imagining all the screams of ecstasy she would be making later that night when Steven got home. Susan never screamed in ecstasy. Jackie was very smug about it.

She stubbornly tried the whisk again, but all the peanut butter had trapped itself in the middle and wouldn’t combine with the other ingredients. Jackie clenched her hands and resisted the urge to throw the mixing bowl. Not only did she _not _want to clean that up, but she’d used half of their peanut butter for this, and they really couldn’t afford to waste it. Peanut butter was very filling, she had found out, and a nice big spoonful was perfect for those days when they’d have to skip dinner and go to bed early to sleep off the hunger pangs.

And besides, she _wanted_ to do this. Steven worked so hard to keep everything together, never worrying enough about himself, too caught up making sure she ate enough and didn’t work too hard and had time for her schoolwork. She wanted to do something nice for him, and she remembered how he liked those peanut butter girl scout cookies (they didn’t have chocolate, but chocolate is _always _a good addition to any dessert), so she asked Jess from work if she knew an easy recipe, and there she was, being foiled by a whisk and some snack food.

She could call Jess for help, but she didn’t want to run up the phone bill. She could ask a neighbor — _not _Susan — but she didn’t want any of them to look at her too closely. They hadn’t yet received any news about their runaway/kidnap status, but she wasn’t about to risk it. In any case, this shouldn’t be so hard. The stupid thing just needed to _mix_ and the rest would be cake. Cookies. Whatever.

Jackie banged her head on the counter and let out a long, miserable groan, then she stood back up and eyed the sink.

_There’s an idea_.

A terrible, awful, disgusting, revolting idea, but an idea none the less.

_It’s for Steven, it’s for Steven, it’s for Steven…._

—:—

When Jackie was little, she _loved _Play-Doh. There was no better feeling in the world than squishing the soft clay between her fingers.

This was nothing like that.

Peanut butter is _sticky_. Like, she already knew that, but she didn’t really appreciate it until she was trying to scrape it off her fingers. Her _very thoroughly washed _fingers. Twice washed, actually, and her nails carefully cleaned and trimmed, and _how _was peanut butter this messy, why did she do this, what made her think this was a good idea, what was she thinking, _Oh my god I touched a raw egg ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew—_

But it was finally mixed, and hey, when it was all stirred together, it almost had the texture of Play-Doh. Mostly.

_This is Play-Doh,_ Jackie told herself firmly. _Ugly, scented Play-Doh with chocolate chips in it._

She gathered what last bits she could off of her hands and scraped them on the edge of the bowl, turned the sink back on with her elbow, and quietly promised herself that she’d never ever do that again as she cleaned up.

_Hard part down._

—:—

Hard part not down.

Getting the cookies onto the baking tray was easy enough. Jess had lent her one along with her non-stick cooking spray and had given her very clear instructions on how to get the right amount for each cookie using two tea spoons, how to space them all out, even how far down to press with a fork to add a cute criss-cross pattern. The difficulty lied in baking time.

Jess _said _eight minutes — four minutes one way, spin the tray around, four minutes the other way, if you have a shitty oven. Jackie had a shitty oven. She checked on them frequently, paranoid they’d burn the moment she turned her back, but when eight minutes hit, they were miraculously un-charred.

And squishy. They were so _squishy _when they came out. Cookies weren’t supposed to be squishy. Cookies weren’t supposed to break and stretch and fold over when she tried to remove them from the baking pan, but they were too destroyed to just try putting them back in the oven a little longer, so she threw them into the trash and started up a new batch. Fortunately, Jess had lent her a smaller pan, Jackie not being able to tell her how big her oven was, so she still had plenty of mix to try again.

She decided to leave the new batch in for six minutes on each side, checking on them as often as the first. Just because she hadn’t burned her first attempt, didn’t mean the second was safe. When time was up, they were still weaker than she wanted them to be, so she put them back in for two more minutes on each side.

_Why aren’t these like the store’s? _she wondered, pouting and frustrated as she turned the tray around. She only had enough dough for one more batch if the current one didn’t work out.

It didn’t work out. They were still too soft. She shoved the pan back in the oven and slammed the door shut again.

_Why _did the cookies hate her?

She looked at the clock and froze. Steven would be home soon.

—:—

While the cookies continued baking, Jackie put on her make up. It was a process, determined as she was to look perfect, but not too obviously made-up. There was a delicate balance to her art, but Jackie was well-versed in it. She took longer than usual, and by the time she was satisfied with the end product, the cookies were slightly more done than she wanted. They looked perfect, though, just the right shade of brown as store bought cookies and not at all shapeless as she unstuck them from the tray. They might be a little crunchy, but she doubted that would bother Steven.

Jackie hummed, happily transferring the cookies to a plate, before looking at the bowl of leftover mix and frowning. She didn’t have time to bake the rest of it _and _finish getting everything ready before Steven got back from work.

She plastic wrapped the mixing bowl and put it in the fridge, hidden behind a pitcher of lemonade and a carton of eggs, and went to change her clothes. She could use up the last of it the next day before she gave Jess her pan back. _Yes, excellent plan,_ she told herself, stripping off her dirty tee-shirt. She had fifteen minutes.

—:—

Drinks were poured and candles were lit and Jackie was just smoothing out her dress when she heard the key in the lock. The door swung open and she cheered, _“Happy birthday!”_

_“Shut up!”_

_“Get bent, Susan!” _Steven slammed the door spitefully before turning to her, his expression softened at her cheerful face, and bent down to kiss her cheek. “Thanks, baby.” She smiled.

“Get comfortable and I’ll get your present,” she told him. He smirked.

“I like where this is going.”

“Sit down, you pig.” She giggled as he stripped off his shoes and coat and she skipped to the kitchen. “I baked you these,” she said as she carried the plate of cookies to his seat on the couch, an old, worn out thing they’d gotten from a thrift shop. She plopped down next to him and threw her feet over his lap. She grabbed a scented candle from the coffee table and held it up to him. “Make a wish.”

He closed his eyes and pretended to think, then blew out the candle and grabbed a cookie.

“_Ow_.”

Jackie’s smile died.

“Are… are they no good?” But she’d worked _so hard_….

“No, baby, no, they’re great,” Steven assured her, looking down at the cookie warily. “I’ll just… suck on them.” He held it in his teeth. “_Mmmm_….” She grabbed it from his mouth and threw it on the plate.

“Oh, forget it, I ruined them.” She took her legs out of his lap and dropped the plate on the coffee table, glaring down at it as frustrated tears gathered in her eyes. Steven scooted close and drew her body to his. “They didn’t make you feel better at all.”

“Better?” he asked. “About what?”

“Stuff.” The tears dried up as she realized Steven wasn’t upset, but the frown stayed. “You just work so hard and it’s your _birthday _and I wanted to do something nice but the _stupid cookies wouldn’t bake right_—”

“Doll, you don’t have to worry about me,” Steven told her, holding her head in his hands, running a thumb across her cheek as he forced her to look at him. “I am _fine_, I _promise _you.”

“Well, you worry about me,” Jackie pointed out. “And don’t say_ ‘__that’s my job’ _or I’m pinching you.”

“Jackie, if you pinch me, we’re gonna have a serious problem in this relationship,” Steven said, his face blank to any who didn’t know him as well as she did. His eyes were teasing, his lips twitched in a suppressed smile, so Jackie agreed and grinned again and lightly kicked him in the shin. “Ok, you know what—”

Steven tackled her, stretching her out onto the couch and immediately going for her neck, not stopping his assault even as she shrieked and screamed and playfully fought against him.

There was a banging on the door.

_“If you two don’t cut it out, I’m telling the super!”_

Steven angrily climbed off of her and wrenched the door open.

“You know, you have a lot of energy for someone collecting disability.”

“You two need to keep it down, some people are trying to sleep,” Susan demanded, ignoring Steven’s accusation.

“It’s not even six yet,” Steven pointed out, and Jackie glared at the old woman as an argument ensued. This was supposed to be a _fun _day. The cookies were already ruined and now fucking Susan wanted to ruin the rest of it. Jackie froze for a second, then she eyed the plate and smirked.

_The cookies…._

Jackie threw one over Steven’s shoulder, laughing in satisfaction as it hit Susan on the shoulder. She yelped and started to yell again, but Jackie threw another, barely noticing as Steven grabbed his own handful and joined her.

Susan retreated, shouting threats and curses, and Jackie closed the door, breathless with laughter as Steven came up behind her and pulled her close.

“Well I feel better, how about you?”

Jackie laughed again and spun in his arms, winding her fingers in his hair. He kissed her, slow and deep, and she wondered how she ever thought anything less than this was love.

“Thanks for the cookies.” He was sincere even as he was joking, and Jackie smirked.

“I have another surprise for you.”

“Oh yeah?” He kissed her again.

“Yeah.” Another kiss. “I’m only wearing your Lead Zeppelin shirt under this dress.”

Steven tossed her over his shoulder and the laughter started again.

—:—

The next day, Jackie discovered that peanut butter cookie dough was just as good raw. 

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so this is one of my first attempts at Jackie’s POV and definitely my first posted one, so please be gentle, thank you.
> 
> Also, feel free to send in any requests! If I can find a storyline and I don’t have plans to put it in the sequel, I’ll try and write it out!


End file.
